Overlooking the harbour entrance at Antibes, South of France is a very large statue. It is made of many bits of material which are in the shape of the letters of the alphabet, all stuck together to make an image of a person sitting. It is possible to walk inside the sitting statue and look out through all the letters of the alphabet. You can sit inside the sitter and look out through the jumble of letter that forms the skin. But from a distance that jumble disappears and it is just the form of the sitter.
Here is an image of the statue taken from behind in a large courtyard that defines the inside of the harbour wall. The noonday sun almost divides the sides of the courtyard in two - one side in light and other dark in shadow. On the shadow side there is a window space and through this we can just make out a person walking. We can see some things in the light but the dark keeps some things obscure. As in our emotional lives, there are some things open to the light and others that have a dark and uncertain quality. Over all this the statue just sits, that is all it is doing, just sitting silently in this place in the noonday sun with light and shadow both present. How like the meditator.
Silently sitting
the statue fulfils
its purpose
The verse is inspired by Chapter 34 of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu:
The great Tao flows everywhere, both to the left and to the right
The ten thousand things depend upon it; it holds nothing back.
It fulfils its purpose silently and makes no claim.
